London Windows Phone app helps keep the streets clean

Here's a pretty ingenious way for citizens to use the power of mobile phones, specifically the camera, GPS and internet, to take back their streets.

Giving a quick way for citizens to report vandalism, garbage and other such nuisances, people simply take a photo and upload it to a public message board where the appropriate authorities can then act on it. It's a smart way to get government to be more efficient and for citizens to take part in maintaining the community. As a result, the town has reduced graffiti by 73% and response time has gone from 2 1/2 days to just a 1/2 day--pretty impressive.

Goes to show how technology can really make an impact in people's quality of life. Too bad we can't envision U.S. politicians being so progressive about technology and implementing such a program. Head to the BBC site to see the video of it in action, pretty cool stuff.

Got to love how they managed to completely avoid saying the words "Windows Phone" in the entire news item. You can bet if this was an iPhone app you'd have the words "Apple" and "iPhone" peppered through every other sentence.